The Making of The Laver (Exodus 38:8).
‘And he made the laver of bronze, and its base of bronze, of the mirrors of the ministering women who gathered at the door of the Tent of Meeting.'
The laver was made of bronze and was made from the mirrors of the women who would gather at the entrance to the Tent Of Meeting. This would suggest that pious women used to gather at the entrance to the old Tent of Meeting in order to worship and pray. It was clearly their wish that their mirrors be used for something special. For the laver see Exodus 30:18-21. This touching note confirms the genuineness of the narrative. It is a note of authenticity. For the use of the mirrors in this way would not be known at the time of the instructions concerning the laver, but it was known once the work was completed.
Mirrors in the Old Testament period were usually round or oval and made of metal, cast and highly polished. Their use in Egypt, and the Egyptian expertise in polishing the metal from which they were made, is well known and examples can be found in the British Museum. Furthermore several bronze examples from the Middle Bronze Age onwards have been found in Palestine, of a form common throughout the Near East. The Hebrew word for ‘mirror' (maroth) appears to be taken directly from the Egyptian ‘maa'.